How to Mention Sports Activities on Resume

When you are writing your resume, there are a slew of differing academic, professional, personal, and extracurricular activities which you can include. And while the crux of your resume should be centered on your professional and educational experience, personal and extracurricular ones can help to set you apart from the competition and other applicants.

Below, we are not only going to discuss how to mention sports activities on a resume but will also look into situations where doing so will help you to stand out as a candidate. In addition, we will discuss how sports activities help you to be perceived by a potential employer and why adding those skills and experiences to your resume can make sense.

What is a Resume?

If you are looking to get started in your professional career, you will need a resume to help you find new employment. A resume, quite simply, is a document created and utilized by an individual to present and provide information on their background, skills, and accomplishments.

These skills and accomplishments can include, but are not limited to, educational history, professional employment, personal skills, hobbies, and extracurricular activities.

And although a resume will vary from individual to individual, the overall gist of the resume remains the same and that is to provide a potential employer with a list of accomplishments and skills which you believe will strengthen your employment opportunities.

When Should You List Sports on Your Resume?

Admittedly, including a list of sports played, either professionally or recreationally, is only advisable at certain points in your professional career. Namely, when you are a current student or recent graduate who has little professional experience, placing your sports activities on your resume can help to showcase your leadership abilities, your social skills, and your teamwork abilities.

However, once you have accrued a few years of professional working experience and have been in the professional workforce for a number of years, including your recreational sports experience is unnecessary and can take away valuable space on your resume.

That is, your resume is meant to showcase your most recent and relevant professional experience and educational history. Those experiences and history will help you in securing new employment and advancements in your career.

After a few years of professional experience, your sports activities simply do not hold as much weight and will take away valuable real estate on your resume that can be better used to better describe and evangelize your working history, experience, and accomplishments.

However, notwithstanding, if your professional career is closely related to those sports interests, then including them can be a useful accomplishment and point of experience. That is, if you are in a related industry to the sport, then your previous professional or recreational experience in that sport can make you a more qualified candidate.

Benefits of Listing Sports Activities on Your Resume

While, after a number of years in a professional career, having your sports activities on your resume can be unnecessary and can remove valuable real estate that can be better utilized for more relevant pieces of information, there are times when listing your sports activities and engagements on your resume can be useful.

Below, we are going to review some of the benefits of listing your sports activities on your resume.

• Early in your career – early in your career, when you don’t have much professional experience, listing your sports related activities and extracurriculars can be seen as a transferrable skill. Transferrable skills are skills that can be applied to multiple contexts. For instance, if you were the captain of your high school basketball team, that leadership experience can be considered a transferrable skill and one that showcases your leadership abilities.

• Teamwork and collaboration – similarly, basketball requires a high degree of teamwork and collaboration. By listing your basketball experience in an amateur setting, you can showcase your ability to work with other individuals to get the job done.

• Passion and perseverance – lastly, listing your sports experience on your resume can showcase your passion and perseverance to a potential employer. By showcasing the number of years and accomplishments achieved over multiple years in the sport, an employer can see that you are a hard worker and persevere to succeed.

Where to List Your Sports Experience on Your Resume

Once you have decided to list your sports experience on your resume, it is important to understand where to list that experience. Admittedly, not all experience is created equal and some experiences deserve a more prominent display then others.

Below, we are going to review three common options on where to list your sports experience on your resume.

• Footer Section – for many applicants, the footer section of their resume is the final section of their resume that lists miscellaneous items. From sports activities, to extracurricular ones, to individual hobbies, the footer section can be a catchall for miscellaneous activities and experiences that were not suitable for other areas of the resume.

• Experience Section – if your sports experience was more professionally defined, then listing it within your professional experiences can make sense. However, you will want to include additional information on the experience, including number of years, accomplishments, and individual accolades received.

• Hobbies Section – lastly, many applicants include a hobbies section within their resume. Typically done to list personal experiences and items, the hobbies section is a great place to put your sports experience and play in.